22 Mar 2015

The sport of hockey seems to have sprung back to life in Botswana after being in hibernation for several years.  


In its first noteworthy effort to revive their code, the new board of Botswana Hockey Association (BHA) staged an open day at the hockey ground in Gaborone on March 21 with the aim of re-branding itself and re-establishing competitive hockey.


The board also used the fun-filled event, which included a mixed tournament for development and senior players, as an opportunity to lay down its objectives for reviving the code.


Board chairperson Unaswi Matebu, said their revival drive includes reactivating their development structures, increasing the number of active senior community clubs affiliated to the association, establishing a competitive hockey league, and increasing public awareness of the code.


She said hockey used to have strong development structures, but things became less effective from 2008 the committee that had laid down those structure was replaced by a new one.

She said by 2012 official competitions were almost non-existent, and her board has now decided to revive things after being elected in January. 


“We realized that we had lost a lot of our stakeholders that we were working with to develop the sport, and have decided that the only way is to go back to what was working, which is development of young players,” Matebu said.


She said their priority is to source funds that will enable them to start development teams in government schools, and to provide private schools that already have hockey teams with more competitions
“Our development plan is basically more into junior athlete development.

What we want to do is to go and develop hockey in schools,” she said.
Matebu said they also want to increase the number of community clubs because the five they have at the moment is not enough. She said there are currently four hockey clubs in Gaborone and one in Jwaneng.
“We need to revive clubs like the Francistown and Maun ones.

The more we have people playing hockey, the more activities we would have and more people will know about the presence of hockey,” she said.


Further, she said another step they will be taking is to develop human resource capacity, including qualified umpires, which will eventually enable the association to start its own league.

She said they intend to have their league up and running by May this year.
Botswana National Sports Council (BNSC) treasurer Boitshoko Tsiane, who was guest speaker at the event, promised financial and technical support by the Council.

However, he warned that support will only arrive after the BHA board has demonstrated that it is serious about progress. He also advised BHA to take advantage of existing BNSC development structures such as ‘Re Ba Bona Ha’ to develop the sport further around the country.

“Hockey should not be a five club thing forever. It should not be limited to a few. You should stage tournament around the country to increase awareness about hockey,” Tsiane advised the board.
Teams that competed during the open day were University of Botswana, Jwaneng, Kidz Academy, Romans, Vikings, and Okavango International.


The BHA Board comprises Matebu as chairperson and her vice Dear Ramajalwa, Koketso Ludwig as treasurer, Bongani Nsumiwa as coaching and development coordinator, and Thoriso Bogwasi as additional member. ENDS